The Grey NATO – 335 – Guilty Pleasure Watches (and more!)

Published on Thu, 26 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Grey NATO (episode 335), hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton dive into a discussion about "guilty pleasures" across various categories including watches, cars, media, food, and lifestyle. They explore what makes something a guilty pleasure - not necessarily feeling guilty about liking something, but rather being somewhat embarrassed to admit enjoying it. The hosts share their personal guilty pleasures ranging from Panerai watches and solid gold Rolexes to rom-com movies and disco dancing. The episode concludes with final notes discussing two movie recommendations: the Netflix documentary about the Titan submersible disaster and the 1988 film Midnight Run starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 335, and it's proudly brought to you by the always-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegreynato.com for more details. My name is James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my buddy and co-host, Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing?
Jason Heaton Well, other than a potentially broken toe, I'm actually doing pretty well. And I don't mean to be melodramatic. It might not be broken. I just stubbed my toe really badly last week and kind of hobbled. But yeah, all in all, things are fine.
James Stacey It cooled off finally. That's great. Yeah, it has not cooled off here. It is about high 90s. Oh, yeah. For those of you in Fahrenheit, we're in 31, 32 Celsius, something like that. Wow. I'm sitting in my basement, which is due to the air conditioning in this house, 16 degrees Celsius, which is like 60 Fahrenheit. So I'm in slippers. I have a blanket on. Oh, I have a blanket on my lap. I'm wearing a full sweatshirt. I just, I can't bring myself to heat this one room, like to put a space heater in my office. But after about three or four hours, I have to go upstairs and like, you know, get the circulation going again.
Jason Heaton It's chilly down here for sure. Yeah, it's kind of what it was over the weekend. And it coincided with a wedding that I went to with my girlfriend on Saturday. Nice. Part of it was outdoors and part of it was indoors. I mean, in the evening it was fine. I mean, to me, like a little bit of tropical weather is kind of what you sign up for in the summer. And I'm not going to begrudge it given how long the winters are. Sunday, we got out for some kayaking. I think I've mentioned maybe in past years, there's this creek called Minnehaha Creek that runs quite a few miles through kind of the heart of several communities here and ends on this 50-foot waterfall not far from my house. And it's kind of a popular thing to float down or kayak or inner tube or whatever for people in the summer. And so we did that on... on Sunday. Um, and it was, it was kind of perfect because it was so hot and then we would stop along the way and put the boats up on the bank and just kind of drift in the, in the river or in the Creek and hold on to an overhanging branch and kind of let the current, you know, kind of pull you along. I mean, it was, it was. It was much needed. It was proper summer fun that I haven't had in a while, so it felt really good. Yeah. It looked great on Instagram for sure. Yeah, good fun. And then today is downright cool. I mean, I think it's probably whatever temperature your basement is, that's what it feels like outside today. It's breezy and cool and, yeah, kind of really flipped the switch. So not unwelcome. I don't mind intervals of cool and hot, you know, as long as it's not unrelenting. Yeah.
James Stacey yeah i i don't mind like a 30 35 degree day i wouldn't i would prefer not to have to you know it all depends on what you're doing i wouldn't prefer to be working in that heat yeah uh but i love going for a walk and really really feeling the the my blood moves better in sort of tropical temperatures i love you know i like the humidity and the heat and all that kind of stuff so yeah it's good but uh you know sadly it's best at the cottage and we're still playing a waiting game on this baby yeah who's decided you know to to really kind of hang on yeah to its current living scenario uh and uh so we're just waiting like just like it's so kind of boring and anxiety inducing to just kind of sit around and wait and you just go like i would love to be able to do some stuff or make some plans or yeah you know be able to answer people at work about when I'm around and when I'm not going to be around and all that. And you can't like, it's just, you just, I'm here for another day and we'll see how long it lasts. So like I said, for the last couple of episodes, I don't know when this one will come out. I will try and edit it today on the basis of baby could easily come tomorrow. Uh, but I just don't know. It could, you know, it could come in two hours. I have no idea. So it's, um, I'm not a patient human being and I also don't like unknowns. Uh, so it's, it's, uh, it's, um, it's a bit stressful. I'm sure. But yeah, I don't have I have like next to nothing to report. We're just kind of hanging around the house and keep, you know, just kind of hanging out and enjoying the heat and that sort of thing. But we have not been up to anything at all.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm sure that not only is the... baby scenario a bit stressful but then just that sense of you know whatever you're waiting for that when there's sort of an open end to it it's just it always feels a little bit unsettling to like not be able to make any any plans you know even for for the remainder of the day you kind of have to be on call and ready
James Stacey Yeah, we don't want to be more than, you know, maybe a half hour from the hospital, that sort of thing. So no cottage, no going to see my folks, no like kind of fun road trips or seeing friends that maybe live a little bit further away to kind of kill that time. So it's a lot of just kind of like around the house.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey But yeah, I don't have anything else to add. So we can jump right into a wrist check. What are you wearing today?
Jason Heaton Well, my month with the Pelagos FXD officially ended and I actually wore my Rolex sub to the wedding on Saturday, which was in the heat, nothing like a steel bracelet. It just wears so well and so nice when it's hot out. But today I'm wearing my 45 millimeter 50 fathoms, the Blanc Pan. So, you know, last week we did our summer dive watch roundup and the... hot off the presses 38 millimeter one was uh was announced the day we recorded last week and seems to have taken the watch internet world by storm and and i just kind of felt felt like pulling out my my big one and wearing it and it's uh it's great you know yeah fun watch
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, we talked a lot about it on the last episode. So if you missed 334, go back and check it out. But I just think it's such a dream watch. But man, is that a price tag? Yeah, yeah. I'm still kind of in a holding pattern for this Nomos that I ordered previously, the new kind of world timer. But that's looking like July, probably. Uh, so just kind of hanging out on this side and then because we're not really going anywhere, I've been wearing the CWN one pretty frequently. And then just a couple of days ago, I'm not, I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's just, I was wearing an outfit that I thought kind of fit. I grabbed the Explorer two and, you know, wound it up. It had probably sat for a couple of weeks or whatever. And, uh, and threw that on and I, I kind of just don't want to take it off. It's perfect. Do you have it on the bracelet? That could, yeah, it's on. Yep. It's just fully stock, uh, on the bracelet. Uh, really nice on a hot day. Super comfortable. I will say the one thing that I will note, and Jason, maybe you get this too now, is having become kind of titanium boys, a steel watch on a bracelet, even a reasonably sized one like an Explorer II, feels big.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Or heavy. Not big. Heavy. It feels heavy. I notice it on my wrist. And where I'll fall asleep with the CWN1 on, I pretty much take this off at night. Yeah. Yeah. But I do I do just love this watch and I think it is for me kind of the pinnacle sport watch format that thirty nine forty millimeter five digit Rolex case. Yeah. Yeah. Because it still feels really burly and well made and tough and you know of the Explorers legacy and the rest of it. But at the same time, it's not too big. It's not kind of oversized. It's still very understated sort of watch. And that white dial has lost no appeal to me over the years. You know, I got this nine years ago for my 30th and I just love it. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's a great watch. And you're right. I mean, these, you know, I think when we talked about, I don't remember what episode it was or what we were talking about, but just sort of the changing face of Rolex.
James Stacey Oh, my half-baked Rolex media theory. Yeah. We'll get the full idea eventually. But yeah, I don't know. I've been listening to a ton of Acquired. And they really go in to explain what is luxury and what's the difference between premium, ultra premium, and luxury. And I think there was a world where Rolex transitioned from a premium professional thing that was needed. For a long time, it was needed. So I think you could call it a tool. But somewhere in the 90s... I think that need sort of evaporated. More phones had screens. We had daily devices that had time on them that weren't watches. And I think to adjust to that, Rolex became more of a luxury product and less of a premium option. And I think that for me, that's characterized by the difference between a five digit and a six digit. Is a six digit a better watch? Almost certainly. Yeah, almost certainly. Better made, but probably, you know, among the most stringently made mass produced products in the world. you know, really carefully considered, thoughtful, all of those sorts of things. But the charm for me of Rolex exists in that previous era when it was still very postmodern, hard work, begot a great watch. And that, you know, it was that sort of thing that you could work for. and I don't know that that's necessarily the same context for Rolex today. It's more of a status symbol than it ever was and that sort of thing, and I think that kind of changes the vibe of the watch for me.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I think we touched on some of those points earlier, and I think I probably even sound like I'm probably repeating ourselves here, but I think I brought up the metaphor, the parallel example in the automotive world of something like a Defender or a G-Wagon or something, these things that were... useful and used and very functional and built really well and that's why people bought them and then they've morphed into something different um which you know yeah can't always say is negative i mean i hate to be the you know old curmudgeon railing against it but it's you know i i would i would hate for this to feel like a negative it's more of a taste thing yeah right for i think for you and i the the the thing that that that for me spoke to me about rolexes was the
James Stacey I mean, it's that marketing. If you were doing X, you would wear a Rolex, right? Whether you're a world leader or a pilot, you're flying the Concorde, you're diving, you're doing this, you're doing that. That's, for me, Rolex. And in many ways, I think today, for me, that's Tudor, right? And we've definitely talked about all this. None of that's necessarily new. But it is interesting because this idea of... Like when something when a product really goes to the point of being all of its benefits are unnecessary or inconsequential to the product that could be spaced below it. You're buying it just because of what it is. Then I think that brings us into kind of today's main topic in an interesting way. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that, you know, we're talking about guilty pleasures, which we can let's have a philosophical conversation about the idea first. Yeah. Because I don't think you and I really even believe in the root context of a guilty pleasure. If something makes you happy, just enjoy it. For me, it's like, is it something that makes me happy that I'm kind of embarrassed to like?
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacey Yes, exactly. Is that kind of the vibe for you as well? Or like I wouldn't necessarily want to tell everybody on a pod. I will. This is a podcast. We're going to have some fun. But these are things that I think typically I don't, I wouldn't want marked as part of my personality necessarily.
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacey And weirdly, it's both some trashy things. and some ludicrously expensive things that I think are kind of a tough look. And I think we'll get into those, right? But we kept us blind. So I don't know yours. You don't know mine. We've got watches, cars, media, food, and then something I just called lifestyle, which is like things that you do that you maybe wouldn't broadcast.
Jason Heaton I think the title Guilty Pleasures was something I'd been noodling on for a long time, but I struggle with the term because... It isn't necessarily something you feel guilty about, but to call it unexpected pleasures, it sounds kind of... Yeah, it's not surprising. Actually, yeah. It's more like you said, something that you might not want to share as part of your public persona or, you know, well, here we go actually doing it. But yeah, you're right. So it's...
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, there's a great quote that has way too many swear words in it for me to repeat, but from Dave Grohl saying that, like, this is stupid. The idea of a guilty pleasure is stupid. If you like Toxic by Britney Spears, that's because it's good. Go ahead and like it. Yeah. And I think there was a lot of consideration of guilty pleasures in Chuck Klosterman's writing, a guy I've talked about a ton. I'm a huge fan of everything he's ever written. But a lot of it was about, like... Why do we like these things? What is it that we know? We know trashy TV is trashy. That's why it's trashy. It's like a part of the appeal. And I think it's kind of an interesting thing. I don't necessarily feel like if I pick a watch, my guilty pleasure won't be because it's a bad watch. It's because it's a weird fit for me or a watch that maybe has some baggage or... Or a watch that has, we've talked about this before as well, kind of twin personalities. For me, if I try and explain the idea of a twin personality product, I go to the Mazda Miata. Because car people and people who know and really appreciate cars, especially sports cars, love Miatas. And if you take one step back to a more generalist audience, maybe this is an audience that loves... muscle cars maybe it's an audience that doesn't really know cars at all that's a car that was you know the butt of every gay joke when i grow up not not nice of course but let's be fair and honest here it was you know a hairdresser's car was a small roadster why would you ever drive that and and you know i think those are products that have two personalities yeah that you you kind of have to you might align with only one of them right right you almost certainly do but there are these products that have that and i think that can also contribute to like I shouldn't like this, but I do. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, with that preamble. So where would you like to start? I've got kind of multiples of each. So I don't know that we have to do this like a draft or whatever. Right. Right. Did you want to start with watches or do you want to start with something a little bit more general? We can get to the kind of nitty gritty.
Jason Heaton Well, I think it's a little – how about we start with the food one because I think it's sort of a – It's a nice sort of entree. Pardon the pun. Yeah, absolutely. To the whole topic, yeah. Yeah, what's yours? I mean, okay, I'm curious where you're going to take this.
James Stacey I mean, the really honest one is booze. oh it's bad for me like it's not good for you yeah and and i like if if the moment that i know that i've either had too much or had a drink that i didn't even want or whatever that that scenario is yeah i feel bad and that's so i think that's a real guilty pleasure i think more in the like i wouldn't want necessarily people to know it's like i'll eat dry mr noodles you know what mr noodles are that's a thing in the states i assume Is it like a ramen thing? Yeah, like a ramen package for like 40 cents.
Jason Heaton Yep, yep.
James Stacey Like growing up, I would eat those like chips. Really? Huh. Yeah, just, you know, it was cheap. Yeah. And you could, you know, you'd get the chicken one or the spicy beef. Yeah. And open the package, take out the little... sachet of uh of you know spices and stuff and sprinkle it in there and then uh crunch it up in the bag and then shake it and then just eat it and i like i i know that's trashy you know they were like 29 cents growing up or whatever so if you had a dollar you could get like a couple of snacks out of it yeah yeah And like I haven't really lost my sort of interest in that. Right. Yeah. How about you? Because you're such a tight eater.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I do have some vices. I mean, I think, you know, booze is an obvious one. I think, you know, I've long loved my scotch and I did six months dry last year, early part of the year. And I'm not against doing that again. I think I could do it overnight. I mean, it's not a big challenge for me like it is for some people. And admittedly, some people struggle with it, etc. It's not something I struggle with. But I do. I do like my whiskey, although having said that, I haven't had one in, gosh, probably since I was in Scotland a month and a half ago. But there is something that I've kind of come to know or come to enjoy in the past six months or so. And it's a Minnesota product from a company called Whole Grain Milling. And they make these incredible organic corn tortilla chips. And by guilty pleasure, I don't mean... I don't feel guilty about eating them. They're actually all great organic ingredients. There's like three ingredients. It's some oil, some corn, and some salt, basically. They are so good and so addictive that they come in kind of a standard-sized chip bag. If I don't exercise a modicum of self-control, I could eat the entire bag. They are so good. I love salty snacks. I love pretzels. I love corn chips. These are almost, if I can make a comparison, because most people will not know this product, but most people have a favorite tortilla chip. They almost remind me of a healthier or more upscale Frito. It's that kind of crunch and that sort of corn flavor that I just love. Delicious, yeah. I guess in terms of guilty pleasure, it's not a guilt out of eating them. It's a guilt with how many of them I can eat. I could literally sit and eat the whole bag. There was another one that I thought of that is almost a guilty pleasure because of simply how decadent and expensive these are. And it's from a company called, I'm probably going to mispronounce this, Lacrids by Bulow. And it's these balls of... caramel it's like chocolate covered caramel with date and licorice um i'll let me throw a link in the show notes you can take a look at these um they're For one thing, they're incredibly expensive. So you get like nine ounces and it's like $31. It's like ours chocolate almonds. Yeah, it is. Totally. And they're incredibly good. They're from Denmark. And there's like a Scandinavian store here in Minneapolis that sells these things. And I was never really a licorice person. But the licorice in this is sort of... disguised amidst these other flavors and they're just so good and i i cannot overeat these because they're they're so expensive that i just don't want to but it's a mortgage payment just feel bad like you know even buying something that expensive that's a consumable almost you know um so that's a guilty pleasure simply because of how decadently good and how expensive they are but uh so we kind of go from one end of the spectrum to the other we've got these these Bags of corn chips and then these. And those are kind of my two food-related or consumable guilty pleasures.
James Stacey Yeah, and then I get the only other ones that really come up for me are, again, things that I really love that I know are bad for me. That's kind of for food that feels like the guilty pleasure. Like I love onion rings, but onion rings will kill me eventually. Oh, yeah. I probably have to stop. But I love onion rings. I love them.
Jason Heaton They're great. I love fried food.
James Stacey Yeah. I don't have a big sweet tooth. And when I do, I don't even want to eat real food. Like my sweet tooth isn't ice cream, which is milk and ice and the rest of it. It's like gummy candies that are just chemicals. Oh, sure. Yeah. Like I could just, you know, it's just... It's so easy to be like, oh, yeah, of course I need some Sour Patch Kids. No, you don't. You definitely don't. Nobody's ever needed a Sour Patch Kid. You know, that's that. So there's food. Let's save watches maybe for the end. Let's close on watches. Yeah, good idea. Because I think watches will take us some time. Yeah. But I think we can buzz through some of these other ones. How about media?
Jason Heaton Media. So we're talking, I mean, I took this books, movies, music, whatever. I'm generally speaking, and I didn't prepare enough to come up with a list of titles, but I am a fan of rom-com movies. Oh, okay. Again, and this is something that to...
James Stacey Give me like three that if it was on TV, you're going to sit down and catch the next 30 minutes.
Jason Heaton Oh, I mean, like, well, I mean, the first one that springs to mind is something like Love Actually. I mean, I'm not sure that that necessarily qualifies. I think so. It is, right? I mean, it's a rom-com, I guess. Yeah. Right.
James Stacey With like Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail. Oh, yeah. You've Got Mail is a pretty cozy movie.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey It's like it feels good to watch it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
James Stacey And I feel like you and I can both kind of identify with Greg Kinnear in that film, the writer in an apartment you can't afford. Yeah, right, right. Like, there are these, like, nice touch points. And then you get that whole Starbucks storyline and that sort of thing. You know, pretty rad. Yeah. I remember, you know, what are some of the other big ones? Like, Notting Hill. 10 Things I Hate About You, Sleepless in Seattle.
Jason Heaton 10 Things I Hate About You, for sure. I mean, those are old ones. Sure. Yeah, yeah. You know, there was kind of that... That era of Matthew McConaughey with, you know, there's kind of a funny meme or cliche of him. You know, he's always in these poses where he's like for the promotional poster, he's leaning, the two people are leaning against each other.
James Stacey Oh, yeah, for sure. The Fool's Gold era.
Jason Heaton Fool's Gold is great. That movie. Great movie. Okay. Yeah, no, I'm getting a little carried away here. Total sleeper. Overenthusiastic. No, that's a good one, though. That's a good one. I quite like that one.
Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton So, rom-com. But the other one... The other one that I was going to mention, the one that kind of came to mind because of this wedding I was at this past weekend, is dancing. I really like dancing. And I love dancing to disco music. I really like disco. And if you have a mental image of me in flared trousers and my shirt open to my navel or something, that's a little far off. I just, I like to dance.
James Stacey So what song are you thinking of?
Jason Heaton Dancing Queen, you know, ABBA. Oh, it is ABBA, yeah. Stuff like that, or September by Earth, Wind & Fire, you know, stuff like that. Any Earth, Wind & Fire, for sure. That stuff comes on, you know, Diana Ross, you know. It was funny, too, because this wedding was... clearly a much younger generation than me of people getting married in the late 20s or something. But the playlist was right up my alley. I mean, there was a good mix of Chapel Rowan and Taylor Swift and whatever else, but sprinkled in there was some really proper... 70s, 80s kind of dance music disco. There was some Devo thrown in there, Whip It and stuff like that. I'm not just restricting myself to 70s disco, but I can remember early days of work. I remember I was traveling to... I went to Austria when I was in my 20s for a company that I was working for. I remember one night going out with these guys and we went to this... this dance club. And it was that hard, fast beat Euro disco music. I mean, it's nothing at all like American disco. I love that kind of music, that throbbing beat, you know, sort of the whole place is shaking. And like, I just like that. I just like to dance. That's great. Wow. I love that.
James Stacey That's such a good answer. I do not care for dancing. Terrible.
Jason Heaton I just look ridiculous. Way too self-conscious. Yeah, I can't say I'm good at it. I just enjoy it. Alright, how about you?
James Stacey I think medium, I said like the one I'm surprised you didn't say, cause I know that you like these as well. I don't know if you like them to the same extent that I do. Cause I really, this is one of those ones where I, there are really good examples and there are some real stinkers in there as well. And I like all of them. It's Jason Statham movies.
Jason Heaton Oh, good one.
James Stacey Yeah. And I don't even know that I would have the guts to say that to Jay. I would hope that he would understand what I meant because I love him.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey I love his performance. I love the way that he picks movies. Yeah. You know, I've been obsessed with the guy basically since Lock, Stock, Two Smoking Barrels. But it could be The Beekeeper. I don't care. Sure. That was a good one. I will watch that on an airline and be really happy. I just will. Yeah. I like those movies. I like that they're often kind of, in some ways, nonsense. But you're getting... For me, I think it's like why people love the Jet Li movie. Because you knew he was going to do a bunch of kicks. Yeah. And I know that Jason Statham is going to be, he's going to follow four types of films, right? But change the job, right? Like the one I was watching the other day was somebody was interviewing him and did an impression of him as a librarian because he whispers in all his movies.
Jason Heaton Oh, yeah, right, right.
James Stacey And, you know, it's just great. I really I really like that. That's kind of I think that that really kind of captures the core. Yes. But like when it comes to movies and media, like if it's somebody robbing a bank, I'm probably going to watch it, even if it's like D level, like way below a Jason Statham. Yeah. Yeah. I would say like borderline nonsense, military or heist films. I mean, every now and then there's an A plus option. There's a triple frontier. Right. That pops up. that comes from an amazing writer, a great director, has the right cast. Triple Frontier would have been an entirely different movie, impact culturally, if it didn't come out during the pandemic. We've talked about this on past ones. Huge movie that got nowhere because it went right to Netflix. I love it. I would be embarrassed even in this setting to tell you how many times I've watched it. Or how many times I've watched Den of Thieves. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I think to a lot of people that essentially qualifies as a trashy TV. I may not even understand what a Vanderplump is. I don't know if it's a person. I don't know if it's a thing. Yeah. But I do know that, you know, if you put Ben Affleck in a film, I'm probably going to watch it. It doesn't have to be that good. Right. He's almost always amazing, but he's got some stinkers in there, too. I'm not watching Gigli. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. But... Actually, the Gigli thing comes up later in the episode. I just realized when we get to final notes. That's super funny. And then the other thing that I think, I think this is a fairly common thing for people to do. I understand it's a marker for a certain type of brain, etc. I would be embarrassed for some people to know how often I just listen to the same song.
Jason Heaton Oh, sure.
James Stacey On repeat.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I bet a lot of people do that because I do it and I've heard of other people. Yeah. I think we all probably don't want to admit it, but, but yeah, I do that as well.
James Stacey And it'll be like, like I got, I got on a Stan Rogers run last night. I sent you some of it.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. And I just ended up listening to Northwest passage for like two hours probably while I did other stuff. Yeah. I couldn't find a YouTube video to watch and it was making me feel a certain way, which is what you want from, you know, and I just kept it going. Yeah. So, yeah, that's definitely, you know, a proclivity of mine would be to kind of get obsessed with a song. It's stuck in my brain, that sort of thing. All right. So with media, I think that's probably media covered. Do you want to do cars?
Jason Heaton Yeah, we can do cars. Yeah. Well, I have two. I had one that I had in my mind and then another one popped up. And so, you know, everybody knows my love of old Land Rovers. And so my girlfriend has a 2014 Toyota Prius. And I was driving it the other day and... I just had this incredible appreciation for this car. I don't know if it was the absolute contrast from driving, you know, a diesel stick shift, you know, slow, loud, et cetera, Defender in 90 plus degree Fahrenheit heat to go to, you know, an air conditioned, reasonably quiet, low slung car with incredible fuel mileage, fuel economy rather. I used to really quite despise Priuses. I still don't really care for the aesthetics of the older ones like this generation. They're a little kind of awkward looking, I guess. The wheels seem too small. They seem too kind of hunchbacked, etc. But they're incredibly practical cars. This thing can take like an eight foot long bit of lumber or a big dresser can fit in the back, that sort of stuff. It's... Like I said, the fuel economy is great. It's comfortable to drive. It has its flaws, certainly. But I've kind of come to appreciate it to the point where I was thinking about at some point possibly needing a more practical day-to-day vehicle for myself. And I started looking. There's this used car lot near my house that had a fairly low mileage one from around the same era. And I was like, I could kind of see myself getting one of these things just for the day-to-day runabout. So yeah, the Prius. And I think I told you about this a while back. And you were like, yeah, Priuses are pretty cool. But they're not cool. I mean, nobody will ever say a Prius is cool. Although I have to say the new ones are pretty sharp looking. The new one, yeah.
James Stacey The new one's definitely the coolest that a Prius has ever been, for sure. Look, I would say the only thing that a Prius has against it is it was the first one to really prove a point. Yeah. And that point became a political point. Right. And look, if it's between a giant diesel pickup truck and I live in Toronto, so that means it's a black, a double black on black wheels like Ram 1500 short body that's never had a piece of plywood in the back of it. Yeah. And, you know, it is dumping black smoke on the highway like that's one version of deeply uncool to me. Yeah. And I think the only thing you can really say about the the Prius is like it's not a it's not a vehicle that anyone's going to be really excited about. But it's a really like just like the Corolla, just like a Honda Civic, like just a good car. Most people in the world do not care about their car. You just want it to work and keep you safe and keep you the right temperature and not cost too much money, right? It's a comfortable place to sit for your 40-minute drive to work or whatever. Some of us have a sickness where cars have to be something else. They have to be part of our personality. They have to have a personality, all these sorts of things. And what you end up getting is just worse vehicles. I think we've talked about this a lot, especially when it comes to cars, that sometimes worse cars are better. if you love them for being worse. You know what I mean? The Wrangler's great because it's kind of bad at a bunch of things and good at a couple things. And I like that experience. But yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with a Prius at all. But as a car guy, I think that is a guilty pleasure to say, like, I love... Land Rovers, vintage Land Rovers, and also Japanese super economy cars. Yeah, right, right. And they don't have the quirkiness of a K car or a JDM. They're very bland. Yeah, yeah. And I still think that's kind of an interesting point, though. I think that's an interesting pick, that one, for sure.
Jason Heaton What was your other one? Yeah, the other one that I actually had told you about was... Every time I drive down the road and I come across kind of a front end view of a Dodge Challenger coming towards me, I'm so smitten. I mean, even the most bone stock Dodge Challenger. I'm talking like... the most recent generation. I mean, vintage ones are cool, of course, but like there's just, I think they nailed the design of that to kind of recapture the muscle car essence. And they just, I've, I've sat in one, but I've never, never driven one. I've never actually ridden in one, but like they just, it, that to me is, is, is a true guilty pleasure. Like that car in more ways than one, but like it just, it had this like expansive seating and just, it just looks like it would be a car that you just love to slide into. And just cruise around in and just, I don't know, they just seem kind of fun and decadent to my mind. And I love the styling of them. I mean, I don't even need the, whatever it is, you know, the top of the line Hellcat, something or other. But I just think they look great. And I just, I'm not really a muscle car guy. You know, I'm not into Corvettes or Mustangs and things like that. But yeah, a Challenger. I could have a lot of fun in a Challenger.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, that's a wild pick. I think it's a perfect example. That's a car with huge baggage. In my mind, there's like six or seven cars where something crazy is happening in front of you on the highway. It's going to be one of these cars. It's going to be a white Nissan Rogue. It's going to be a Challenger or a Charger.
Jason Heaton It's going to be an Altima that's missing a brake light.
James Stacey Yeah, you know what I mean? To be fair, they are cool, very, I think, kind of specific-looking cars. Yeah. Mine don't deviate wildly from where you landed. Oh, okay. You know, I've got some weird ones. Do you know what a Dodge Ram SRT10 is?
Unknown Oh, yeah, yeah.
James Stacey So that's the Ram with the Viper engine. Yeah. So dumb. Love it. Really, genuinely, that's a hilarious idea. I like a funny idea. I like an unserious vehicle. I just do. Any modern Maserati. Take your pick because they're all not great. Wow.
Jason Heaton That's a surprising one for you.
James Stacey I love the Quattroporte from the previous generation. The really gorgeous one. But I think everybody kind of likes those. Yeah. I don't really mind the Ghibli. I went on the original launch. A really well-specced Ghibli is just a very expensive Chrysler 300, essentially. Yeah. I still liked it. And once you got it, you couldn't drive it slow. You had to drive it on its tires, like on the edge of its tires. It was pretty good. Yeah. G-wagons. Oh, okay. Yeah. I just absolutely love them. But, you know, I think the Kardashians kind of ruined them. If I can, from my perspective, the Kardashians kind of ruined them. This idea that a G-Wagon needed to be a $400,000 vehicle is crazy to me because it is, you know, this original sort of hand-built work truck platform. And the same factory, I don't know about the current generation, but up until they did the refresh, the same factory where somebody might order a field ambulance for Tunisia. Oh, yeah. The next thing on the line they would make is a G63 that was going to Brentwood with quilted white leather. That's wild to me. I think they're very cool vehicles. The older ones are cooler, obviously, and I prefer a 500 to any of the AMG versions. I don't think that that's a vehicle that needs 600 horsepower or whatever. So then you watch the, you know, the Bourne that ends in the tunnel and Carl Urban's driving that black genie. Like, these things just look amazing. But they are bad guy cars. Kind of a Challenger is also kind of a bad guy car, right? Oh, totally, yeah. Has that vibe, like a vanishing point or that sort of thing. Bentley Continental GT? Sure, yeah.
Jason Heaton Love it. Just love it. Yeah, yeah.
James Stacey But, you know, like a $300,000 car that in a decade is worth $30,000. Like, that's a real guilty pleasure for me, for sure. And then the last one, and I think this is sort of in the same vein as your Challenger poll, is like C5, C6 Corvettes. I like them a lot. Okay. Yeah. Right on. I think they're cool. I think they're underrated. I think that because they're kind of boomer chariots to a certain extent, that like especially people my age and younger... kind of write them off often. And I think, you know, we're starting to see C5s gain traction as, you know, drift cars and kind of ratty canyon missiles and that sort of thing. And I think that all fits and makes me kind of happy. But I like them when I see them. I like them when I see them and they're not being driven by, you know, a 70-year-old guy with some gold chains. yeah i love it when you see like a c5 and it's like a like a uh guy in his 20s getting into it yeah and it's got like it's not bright yellow with chrome wheels it's got a little bit more of a vibe to it and then and then i think with the seven and and then when they went mid-engine on the eight the car got too serious I think the Corvette's a whole different thing now. And I was never really a Corvette guy, so the perspective isn't necessarily there. But you look at, like, you know, Jacob Roble, who we've had on the show before that does the straight pipes, he's got a C5 that he's building out. And I just think they're really fun, kind of interesting, like, solid, well-respected sports cars that also have this sort of, like, secondary media personality of being, like I said, kind of like the... the guy in, you know, uh, fresh white new balances and socks pulled up telling you how special his paint color is at the, at the car show. And, and, you know, I used to absolutely cry laughing at regular car reviews going to like, you know, Corvette meets and just walking around saying like, this is the best Cor this is, Oh, this, which Corvette's the best one. Right. Cause you know, it's just very funny to me, but I still like the car at the core for sure. And then the final one, and I think you'd be on my side with this one, is like the weird Alphas. Oh, sure. Yeah. Like those ones that people say they don't like, like the Spyder 916. Sign me up. Yeah. The SZ from the late 90s. Let's go. I had one of those in Gran Turismo. Oh, I remember those. Really weird brick of a car. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm on board for all of these sorts of things. Don't have many, I don't see a lot of these. Probably G-Wagon and, like, Bentley Continentals the most, for me, guilty. Yeah. Because I would, like, I would probably want to own one of those. And I just, I don't know how I'd feel getting out of it if, like, my family saw that I had a Bentley.
Jason Heaton You know what I mean? They're like the chocolate covered caramel date licorice of cars. Yeah, absolutely. For sure.
James Stacey Yeah. Total opulence. Yeah, right. Yeah. All right. Well, we've got watches and we've got lifestyle left. Do you want to do lifestyle and then finish off on watches or other way around?
Jason Heaton Let's do watches actually because lifestyle I have an interesting... I have an interesting response for that. I'd like to save that for last. So yeah, let's do watches. Okay. Yeah, let's do watches.
James Stacey Feel free. Go first. We'll go back. We can trade back and forth.
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. So I've actually only got one. And it's one that has been sticking in my mind for quite a while. And I have never really talked about it on the show or even admitted it. I might have talked to you about this. Well, I guess we've talked about it a little bit offline. But I've been on kind of a Panerai thing lately. I've been feeling... I used to own... early days of watch flipping and collecting and forum days, I had a 112, I think it was. It was the one with the small seconds, hand wound, you know, decorated at a movement, you know, kind of the base model, whatever. And I liked that watch. It didn't last too long with me, but it was a Luminor, you know, with the crown protector. But the one that I always loved, and I believe Adam Craniotes had one, probably still does actually, that I saw in person, and I've only seen a handful of these in person, is the, they call it the PAM, I believe it's called the 00372. Oh, yeah, the vintage one. 1950, they called it. The Panerai Luminor 1950. I'm looking, actually, on Chrono24. Prices have come down. I mean, pre-owned watches are down anyway. Like, that's within the realm. I mean, back in the day, these things were... very expensive and these were these were limited and yeah big and they just had just the right like kind of level of faux patina on the dial the the printing of you know luminor panerai on the dial was different than anything they were doing it they're just cool watches and As people who know Panerai know, they're such strap monsters. I love that it's kind of a dive watch. Traditionally or historically, it was a dive watch, but a dive watch that just wears leather better than almost any other watch in the world. There's just such an aftermarket for Panerai 24mm bespoke leather straps. Every once in a while, I'll see somebody on TV or in a movie or something wearing a Panerai, and I'm like, it kind of tickles me a little bit. I think, oh, boy, I wouldn't mind another one.
James Stacey Well, I assume you must have at least gotten some sort of a notice from the sub-pilot in Titan, the documentary.
Jason Heaton Yep. Yeah, for Ocean Gate. You're previewing my final note, which has been a great surprise. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I had not scrolled far enough down. Yeah, no, but you're right. So we'll revisit this in more detail in final notes. But yes, I did see, I think he was like an engineer or something for Ocean Gate. And in the documentary, he was wearing some sort of a Panerai. And again, it was one of those things that kind of tickled me. Like they're so distinctive from a distance. You know exactly what it is. And for me, it's all about the Luminor. I think I do like radio mirrors and I like various different Panerais, but like a big giant Luminor on a chunky kind of patina leather strap is just really hits me right. And that's my only pick. I mean, that is a watch that... I mean, I'll put it out there. If there's someone on Slack that wants to kind of work a trade for something they know I have, we can talk. I mean, that's... Panerizer, yeah, I've got the itch pretty bad.
James Stacey Tom Place has one, and every time he posts a photo or I see it on his wrist, it looks awesome. Yeah. Like, they just... Yeah, they were the, you know, the kind of cool, luxury, expensive, neat thing when I got into watches in 2007, 2008 was kind of their big... run up in popularity and this is just before they started doing the you know the 9000 series movements the in-house stuff and it was you know at a base 6497s that were decorated and that sort of thing and like i i feel like back in at that time a logo like a basic Luminor was probably like $3,000 or $4,000. It's a very specific thing, and it went out of trend. I feel like it's on its way back, and it is a cool look for sure. You have to be able to pull it off. And like a 47 mil option is going to be big on literally anybody's wrist. And that's the point. You have to lean into it being a big watch. You get a strap you love and you wear it. And it's, you know, it's kind of a singular experience, the Panerai thing. Yeah, I think that's a great pick for sure. All I wrote was Big Panerai on my list. Oh, really? You did, huh? I get it. Oh, that's great. I want to start as broadly as possible. My guilty pleasure when it comes to watches is owning a lot of watches. I just have this thing where I derive some sort of pleasure that I don't think I would want to explain to people who don't get watches why I have so many and why I'm not concerned with what they're worth. Yeah, yeah. To be clear, almost none of them are worth anything. So it's not a big deal. Look, solid gold subs. Oh, wow. Okay, good one. Yeah, just I think they're really cool. I like them a lot. I would be, I think, embarrassed to wear them outside of the watch world. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton Even like a 1680? Like an old, I don't know what they called it. Maybe it wasn't a 1680, but that vintage, like a four digit?
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, I think I would still feel bad because I think people would know what it's worth. Yeah, yeah, true. And, you know, years and years ago, I was in Miami for Watches and Wonders. This would have been, I guess, 2019. Yeah. And I met up with James Lambden, and he had 16578, I think, GMT Master in full gold with the Jubilee. And we traded watches, and I wore that for a couple days. And in that setting... it's just absolutely joyful. Yeah. Uh, I wasn't, nobody was like, it was still an inexpensive watch in that, in that world, in that, those, that zip code that day, that weekend.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey But I don't think like, I don't, I don't know if I could stomach going out and spending what a 30, $40,000 on, on a watch and then it being like solid gold and wearing that around and having my family and friends be like, well, he's a gold watch guy now. Like, yeah, yeah. Like it's different when it's like a little vintage, you know, chronograph that I got for nothing. Right. that happens to be gold and then i think a gold the solid gold rolex is a thing yeah you know what i mean yeah it's very gordon gecko yes uh kind of vibe right yeah you know and as much as i loved i love that you know i'm just not a corporate takeover sort of raider
Jason Heaton I think a big Panerai and a solid gold Rolex sub, those are two proper, that is like the definition of guilty pleasure. Absolutely, yeah.
James Stacey And then the last one is one I've written about as it being my guilty pleasure. It's a watch I still love, and maybe someday I'll buy the titanium one if I can find it depreciated enough and the rest of it. This is the Hublot Classic Fusion Ferrari from like 2021.
Jason Heaton Wow, yeah.
James Stacey 2020, no, it would have been earlier than that. 2018, 2019. I remember, you know, this is towards the end of the Ferrari watches from Hublot, and they put out this relatively small, curvy sort of watch. If you don't know it, I'll put it in the show notes, but it's the classic Fusion Ferrari, and I just love it. I still love it today. I think it is a... Oh, here's your story about it. I just Googled it. Yeah, you wrote it up. I thought it felt special and different. I think the case design is really interesting and very 2002 in a good way, like those weird Nike watches, the Oakley watches, the Matrix. It has that vibe to it. And then crossed with this fairly highly qualified watchmaking and then the guiltiest of pleasures, a Ferrari logo on your watch. That's a tough look. If you don't own a Ferrari. Yes, yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not buying the Pumas that have the Ferrari logo. I don't have the Polo or that sort of thing. So I do like those watches, though. So that's my guilty pleasure for watches. yeah so it's mostly just really expensive kind of showy stuff where i think it wouldn't necessarily match my personality yeah yeah um is kind of where i landed yeah but yeah that's that's uh that's watches i don't really feel guilty for liking any watches but like i said some of them just feel like they don't fit yeah right right Big Panerai. Maybe coming back. It could be 2025, 2026 might be big, big years for Panerai. Could be. Gosh, hope so. I would love it.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey All right. So let's, let's close it off with lifestyle.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey Is there anything that, so the, the, I guess the brief that I gave you was this could be something that you do that maybe was a guilty pleasure, a way of being, or it could be maybe something you bought recently. Yeah. That sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. What, what qualifies for you?
Jason Heaton Yeah, this is a bit of a philosophical thing. We could almost do a whole episode about it. Maybe I'll just write about it for my sub stack or something and just kind of riff on it. But it's watches themselves. I think watches themselves... It's funny, you mentioned that under our last category, watches, that to own as many watches as you can is sort of a guilty pleasure. And to me... Thinking back to this wedding I was at on Saturday and somebody approached me and started asking me about watches or asked me what I did and I mentioned watches. To this day, I still feel a bit sheepish. I kind of lower my voice. I kind of mumble a little bit. I've never been terribly comfortable to be fully transparent here at watch meetups. It always feels a little bit ostentatious. It just kind of goes against my grain. And I feel almost like it's something I need to get over. But I think to be a watch enthusiast or a watch collector is not something that I'd like to, I don't want to say advertise or kind of put out there, but I almost don't want that associated with my... persona, my public persona. I'd rather be a guy who's into gear and adventure and that sort of thing. Oh, he wears a cool watch or a watch is part of that. I've always felt a little bit embarrassed is a strong word. Quiet or not... Conflicted. Conflicted about it. I know exactly what you mean. To me, it's almost the essence of a guilty pleasure. It's something that... I kind of keep on the down low and yet it's been my career. So it's, it's a weird one. And so, you know, when people invite me to meetups or whatever, and I've kind of politely deferred or just, you know, say no thanks or whatever, it's, it's because I'm just not terribly comfortable in those surroundings of kind of just laying out a watch roll full of, full of watches on a table or passing watches around. It's just, it just doesn't quite hit me right. And, and so, you know, incredibly ironic. I realized to be, on a podcast that we've been doing since 2016, largely about watches and writing about watches and that sort of thing to say that. But yeah, it's, it's a guilty pleasure. And I look, I do enjoy watches, obviously. I mean, I love watches themselves, but, but the concept of having it part of my, my being or my, my image or whatever, I'm just, I'm still less than comfortable with it.
James Stacey Yeah, I have my first entry on my lifestyle option here is just having devoted my life to something that doesn't actually matter. Yeah, right. And it's something that I feel I think conflicted is the right sort of word. It's this idea of like, yeah, I like it. And for me, the funny thing is, is I find... I find the most assurance in meeting people and supporting the TGN community. The watches don't actually matter, but there are people behind them and creative people and people with great stories and people with different perspectives. And it's a whole world. And I think that makes it more important to me or more human to me than simply... And I've gotten this feedback from people outside the watch world, like, isn't it kind of ridiculous given what's going on in the world? And this could be any day. It certainly works to say that today. This was probably years ago when somebody said this, to focus on something so trivial as a luxury product. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, you got a point. You're probably not wrong. We're not saving lives here, for sure. I would argue we're not even changing lives. This is entertainment. The vast majority of watch press, I think it's the same for automotive press, it's entertainment. You're reading about something you're interested in because you like it. Sometimes you're reading about it because you tend to buy it. But I do, it's one thing to read about a minivan or even a sedan or a Land Rover, whatever it is that you might buy and it'd be part of your life. Like reading about a watch, even if you intend to buy it, is still entertainment in my book.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. And I'm glad you brought up the- You're scratching an itch. I'm glad you brought up the- the aspect of the people, because I know that the immediate response to my and our sort of statement about this is people say, yeah, but the people it brings together, I fully acknowledge that. I mean, I recognize that. And I guess you could argue that, that maybe we have changed lives in creating a community and the support and we've. raised money by auctioning watches, etc. I get all of that. I think it's just in terms of having it attached to my personality as someone who, you know, does this or is into this sort of thing requires a lot of explanation and caveats and sort of whatever to kind of make me feel better about doing it, you know.
James Stacey Yeah, and look, I also think the idea, if you're not part of this world, or pick a world, pick the world that you want. I'll speak about cars and watches. If you're not part of those worlds, if you're not a member of a community that's based in those worlds, then it's very difficult to understand that this can be a fairly blue-collar thing to get into watches. It doesn't all have to be Rolexes and Blancpans and Breguets and Pateks and... And, you know, a trivia is and that kind of thing. Those are all great. But just like with cars, like you can get into cars for a thousand dollars. You need to watch this for 10 bucks. Right. Right. Yeah. And still be part of it. And I think it's important to keep that in mind. But if you had no clue about any of this, you would know, you know, kind of how. watches, expensive watches are presented in the media and it's, you know, being worn by people like on succession, like anti-heroes or even just full on antagonists. Yeah. Like, like kind of this, this concern for value or, and money and status and all that kind of stuff is kind of a tough look. Yeah. And, and I think what we've attempted to do with TGN is broaden the scope. Watches are part of the other things that we like in our life. And it doesn't, you know, we will occasionally talk about very expensive watches, of course, and that's fun. Do the same with cars. But, you know, we're not here telling you like, oh, you know, your portfolio would be a lot better if you had a 6263 and, you know, a 1518. But that's not the way it is for us. I think it comes down to most of the idea behind guilty pleasure is like, how do you deal with the baggage of liking something that has unlikable aspects? Sure. Yeah. It's a good definition. Yeah. Right. Whether it's too derivative, whether it's too unconventional, whether it's too pointless, all those sorts of things. Right. Yeah. I think what we've largely discovered is you and I might have a problem with wealth. I don't think that's going to be an actual issue for either of us to, you know, have to fight at any point.
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacey But yeah, I think I still – you remember your roots and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I think a lot of it's the kind of generalized discomfort around some of this stuff is like I like to appreciate things. I don't have to buy them or own them or actually be part of the world that does that to appreciate it. And I think that's what the internet has really opened up is the ability – if Pokemon cards can be worth what some of them are worth, then – watches feel a little bit less insane to me. Yeah. Right. Or I mean, let's go even look if NFTs can be worth what they were worth three, four years ago, which of course maybe wasn't such a real market. I'm okay with watches a little bit more than I was, you know? Yeah. But yeah, I think I get the feeling for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, I think this will be a really fun one to see what people bring up for these categories in the Slack. So again, we have watches, cars, media, food, and lifestyle. I would love to hear whether you guys think we got something dead wrong, like it is a guilty pleasure or we missed some aspect of what makes pleasure guilty at times. But I would also just love to see like what other folks are kind of thinking about when they listen to this sort of conversation. Because, you know, I think it's a very human thing to like things that are kind of complicated and maybe require context that isn't openly available or at first glance, you know, kind of transparent and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I'm pretty pumped to see where this goes on the Slack.
Jason Heaton Yep. Feel free to bare your souls there, folks. Love to hear what people think about this and their own guilty pleasures. All right. A little bit of final notes. Final notes. I think we got two movies. We do. Very different movies. Well, I'll go first. We sort of touched on it earlier. It doesn't have to... go on too long about this but um netflix recently released the uh the documentary film called titan the ocean gate submersible disaster and uh you and i actually i think we both watched it on the same day last week and we were same night and i texted you like i already watched it just watched it yeah um it's one i kind of had anticipated you know knew a lot about the story had read a lot of articles about it But this is a really well-done documentary about this tourist submersible that was developed by a company called Ocean Gate. And this horrible tragedy that happened back in 2023 when it imploded on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. And to watch this documentary and how it was researched and the people they interviewed, it almost has a... Shakespearean or Greek tragedy sort of element to it. Again, the old tale of kind of hubris and, you know, I don't want to say arrogance, but this false sense of invincibility that I find just incredibly ironic that they were diving to Titanic, a ship that sank, you know. was thought to be unsinkable or claimed to be unsinkable. And here they were headed there when it actually imploded and those poor folks that were on board died. But it was really a well-done story. They interviewed, you know, chief engineer and some workers that kind of rose up through the ranks and a journalist and an influencer. And they kind of eavesdropped a bit on some of the hearings that went on after the fact with the Coast Guard. And a lot of archival footage. And it's really chilling. And it was a really poignant documentary, really well done. So that's on Netflix. And fair to say, you and I both recommend it.
James Stacey I would, yeah, absolutely. Disturbing, sad. A pretty scathing takedown of the CEO. Granted, I'm not sure how else you would... kind of position your opinion of this guy, given the data working backwards from his death and the metrics in which he was, you know, in some way involved in what happened. Yeah, sad, really kind of, at times, fairly disturbing, well-produced, well-shot, fairly well-told, moves along, not really any, like, major lulls in the story. They keep the pace pretty well. And just, you know, for for a litany of reasons, I just I hope it's the sort of thing that that one doesn't totally end this this category. I'm not saying it needs to be tourists, but just like submarines. that could that can go down to the like the footage from the titanic is so good yeah it's so exciting to see that yeah i can sit there and go this is dumb they shouldn't have like tourists don't need to go to the titanic and you know they didn't they cut a bunch of corners and they were trying to do some new technology and they didn't want to certify it and you know all these things they made a lot of blunders along the way in creating titan yeah and then you see the footage it would be unbelievable to see the Titanic come out of the haze. Right, yeah. Unbelievable. And you go, well, now I kind of get the hubris that puts somebody in that scenario. I don't understand the, like, finding every expert and then basically firing them every time they told you something you didn't like. Yeah. And this is the one thing that didn't feel fully fleshed out in the doc, is the money. Where did it come from and why did they run out? Right. Yeah. Because he seemed like the CEO really did seem like the kind of guy who could have picked up a phone and gotten millions of dollars from somebody. Right. To make a haul that was, of course, very expensive, but... genre changing in terms of making the sub light enough to make certain types of travel possible. Yeah, I thought it was a fascinating doc. Highly recommend. All right. Well, you've got a less serious movie to recommend here. I do. Yeah. You know, we don't typically recommend movies. We like to kind of hang on to them and then use them in film clubs. And look, this is almost certainly a film that will be on the next film club when we do one probably, I guess, next year. It's a movie called Midnight Run from 1988. I have to give a big shout out to my brother Tim, co-host of the Single Serving Cinema, for really talking about this movie so much I had to put it on my list and watch it. And the sort of quick synopsis is a bounty hunter pursues a former mafia accountant who is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the FBI, and his old mob boss after jumping bail. and it's a road trip movie. It's essentially a buddy cop movie, but they're not cops, and it's really, really, really good. Oh, the connection to Gigli that I brought up earlier is this is directed by a man named Martin Brest. And Martin Brest only did four or five movies, but Beverly Hills Cop, huge hit. Meet Joe Black, huge hit. Midnight Run, huge hit. Scent of a Woman was him as well. And then he did Gigli, and I believe he disappeared after that. Incredible. He does not have a ton of directors, but yeah, he has nine to his name. But it was a TV series like he did some Saturday Night Live. And then in 84, he kicks off this run of Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Son of a Woman, Meet Joe Black, and Gigli tanks it. But don't let that fool you. Midnight Run's incredible. Robert De Niro plays an ex-cop. who got chased out of Chicago because he wouldn't take buy money from a mobster played by Dennis Farina. Amazing. Love Dennis. Yeah, yeah. So good. And he's a bounty hunter in New York, and he's given a task of finding this guy called the Duke, who's the mafia's accountant who stole $15 million and gave it to charity. And so that gentleman is played by the wonderful Charles Grodin. It's a genuinely incredible piece of co-casting because these guys have real chemistry. When they're portraying, like, hating each other, it's really believable. And when they start to crack and like each other, it's so good. It's so warm. The movie's full of action. It has... an unbelievable number of swear words. So if you're sensitive to that, uh, it's my understanding. This is like one of the times where that, that like what became sort of that Tarantino flavor of, of, uh, of dialogue kind of was in some ways rooted in, in midnight run and, and, and other movies from its era. So I just wanted to throw that out there because it does kind of sound like a movie you could watch with your kids, and I don't think you could. At least I probably wouldn't. But the movie's incredible, and I'm not going to ruin this because I want people to watch it. There's one of the best wristwatch plot lines of a movie. Wow. Don't remember that. There's actual character development tied to a watch, and I think it's quite meaningful and interesting and much more realistic than the watch being used for something in the film, whereas the watch is sort of a totem to something that is being emotionally dealt with in the film. It's great. All right. I really like this movie. Sarah and I watched it, and I just, like, I finished it and immediately was like, God, should I just watch that again? It's funny. It's heavy. It has real heart and it has real action. Great chase scenes, helicopters. Yes, if Kodo. It's great. It's very entertaining. And basically from the first five minutes, you'll get the vibe of De Niro's character and what he's bringing to the table. He's amazing. I mean, he's always amazing as Robert De Niro.
Jason Heaton yeah yeah yeah that's great i mean as you're as you're talking i'm watching on imdb like the without sound i'm just watching this reel i don't know if it's in the trailer it's just clip after clip and it's just it's just hilarious these these these chase scenes through the desert and the helicopter and a river you know going down a raging river and it's just on and on it's uh I think I must have seen this movie back decades ago, but yeah, I'll have to watch this again.
James Stacey So yeah, that's Midnight Run, and if you're not feeling sort of 80s crime drama slash comedy, then check out Jason's pick of the Titan sub-doc on Netflix. All right. Well, that was a good episode.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I had fun. Yeah, it was really fun, actually. Yeah, I wasn't sure how that topic would go, but I feel like we kind of found a groove, and I hope it resonates with people and we get some good responses.
James Stacey People are going to be so mad at what the Mr. Noodles thing. Yeah. Alright, well, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN sign NATO, please visit thegreatnato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazar via the Free Music Archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Walt Whitman, who said, Do anything, but let it produce joy.